Make It a Wonderful Life! (start with today)

Happy Humpty Dumpty Day!

Yesterday I mowed the lawn barefoot because I need to toughen my feet up for the summer. I have always been a tenderfoot. I wasn't worried about cutting off a toe because firstly, I only have nine so I have better odds than other mowers, and secondly, my tennis shoes or crocks aren't going to save my feet from a whirling toe death machine anyway. I thought about the native Americans while mowing and thought they must have had tough feet. Every time I stepped in dog crap I thought how much different it would have been if it were buffalo chips. I did find out, however, that some mulch is like tiny little military arsenals with bayonets and spears trained to take your feet out. My feet took a punishment and they came back from battle still dressed in their black and green battle camouflage with blood and war paint still adorning their faces. They fought well and made me proud. The yard was pushed back but we know that the lawn will mount another offensive soon and we will have to re-deploy Operation Toro. I took recon photos with the E-3 Sentry (AWACS) but the sensitivity of the mission won't allow me to publish them (actually they were really boring photos).

I saw rabbits everywhere and discovered that one of our neighbors behind us has a rabbit trap set up. It is one of those humane type (catch and release) so I didn't feel bad. It was funny though because as I would come up on where a rabbit was hiding it would take off and go and sit right by the rabbit trap and not even go inside. I would get right up on them before I'd even see them and they'd just take off - won you wascal wabbits won!

I also noticed that another neighbor behind us has let his lawn get pretty high. It's not unusual for them to let it go for a while but stuff like that has never bothered me. Some people get all bent out of shape about stuff like that. I am a do unto others kind of a guy. Once you cross me I have you in my sights for, well, probably forever but until then do what you want. In fact, in this case, it makes our yard look so much better. It's like a long weedy picture frame surrounding our Mona Lisa.

The day I got my toe cut off, when I was seventeen years old, turned out to be one of the best days of my future life. It was my equivalent to the day Harry Bailey fell into the water and George Bailey jumped in after him.
I was already sworn in to go to Army basic training for Military Police. I would never have met Sugar Momma and never had the greatest kids on the planet and I would never have started this blog. That movie does make you think what would have happened if... (we can all fill in our own "if").

I also did some laundry yesterday and was faced with a new dilemma in the clothesline arena. What do you do when it starts to rain? Do you leave them out there because they were just washed and they're already wet? I pulled them in and I'm glad I did because it poured for quite awhile. I will put them back out this morning to finish their drying.

Last night I worked on the back-slash bricks in the kitchen until about 11:00 or so. It looks really nice but I have a long way to go. I have to finish the bricks and then grout. I think I can get it done today. It will be worth the time and money because the part I already did, even before the grouting, looks good.

Tonight we have an 8:00 baseball game and, even though people don't realize it, there is quite a bit of preparation that goes into coaching boy's baseball so I have to work on that this afternoon. All of our 8th graders are going to be late because of an honor's night so we will be missing some key players at the beginning. We have a lot of really good 7th grade players, as most of our team is 7th-graders, so we'll be fine. Our game tomorrow is 8:00 too. Why didn't we get the 8:00 game the day that it was 2000 degrees outside?

Have a "wonderful" day today and... "Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence."


**E3 sentry photo recon'd from globalsecurity.org and the baileys photo out the door or through the windowed from bloodcenters.org **